This is not, however, a simple nostalgia trip involving gentle meandering through the countryside, complete with top hat. In fact, says Reid, our entire image of the penny farthing back in the day is a little too pastoral:

“This Victoriana visual is a cliche. High-wheelers back in the day were not slow, they were the fastest things on the bad roads of the day, not something that endeared them to rural folk, unused to through traffic and suspicious of strangers, speedy or otherwise.”